A Year of Silencing Julian Assange
March 28, 2019
On this date in 2018, the Wikileaks publisher was cut off from the work of
journalism, reports Elizabeth Vos.
By Elizabeth Vos
Special to Consortium News
One year ago Thursday, Ecuador's government under President Lenin Moreno
silenced Julian Assange.
WikiLeaks wrote on Twitter Wednesday: ". March 28, marks one year that
WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange has been illegally gagged from doing
journalism-any writing that expresses a 'political opinion'? even on his own
treatment, after pressure from the U.S. on Ecuador."
On this date in 2018 Moreno imposed on Assange what Human Rights Watch's
legal counsel Dinah Pokempner described as looking "more and more like
solitary confinement." Moreno cut off Assange's online access and restricted
visitors to the Ecuador embassy in London where Assange has had legal
political asylum since 2012.
Moreno cited Assange's critical social media remarks about Ecuador's allies,
the U.S. and Spain. Assange's near-total isolation, with the exception of
visits from legal counsel during week days, has been augmented by the
Ecuadorian government's imposition of a complex "protocol," which, although
eased slightly in recent months in respect of visits allowed, has not
improved Assange's overall status over the last 12 months. In some respects,
it seems to have worsened.
Truck in D.C. (Pamela Drew, Twitter)
Truck in D.C.,March 28, 2019. (Pamela Drew, Twitter)
WikiLeak's Courage Foundation described the terms of the protocol:
"Explicit threats to revoke Julian's asylum if he, or any visitors, breach
or are perceived to breach, any of the 28 'rules' in the protocol. The
'protocol' forbids Julian from undertaking journalism and expressing his
opinions, under threat of losing his asylum. The rules also state that the
embassy can seize Julian's property or his visitors' property and hand these
to the UK police, and report visitors to the UK authorities. The protocol
also requires visitors to provide the IMEI codes and serial numbers of
electronic devices used inside the embassy, and states that this private
information may be shared with undisclosed agencies."
The protocol does not spell out all the restrictions imposed on Assange and
his supporters over the last year. A bombshell report by Cassandra Fairbanks
on Tuesday revealed Ecuador's demand that Assange and his lawyer be scanned
before entering a "highly bugged and monitored" conference room with a
journalist.
Describing her experience, Fairbanks said she had been: "Locked in a cold,
surveilled room for over an hour by Ecuadorian officials, as a furious
argument raged between the country's ambassador and Julian Assange."
The argument reportedly centered on Assange's refusal to submit to a body
scan in order to enter the conference room, where Fairbanks waited.
Fairbanks reported that Assange shouted at the Ecuadorian ambassador,
accusing the latter of acting as an agent of the United States government.
The ambassador then told Assange to "shut up," she reported.
WikiLeaks, writing via social media, has confirmed the "factual elements" of
Fairbanks' story.
Subject to Body Scans
Assange and his lawyers are now subjected to body scans in addition to
conditions that, in the opinion of Ecuador's former President Rafael Correa,
already amounted to torture. In his argument with the ambassador, Assange
protested that he was being treated like "a prisoner" and not a political
asylee.
Assange's supporters have claimed that rather than risk a public-relations
fallout by removing Assange from the embassy by force, the U.S., U.K. and
Ecuador are acting to hasten Assange's physical and mental demise in hopes
he will be forced to leave the embassy or become incapacitated.
WikiLeaks' new Editor-in-Chief Kristinn Hrafnsson told RT in a televised
interview: "We, of course, know that Lenin Moreno in Ecuador is willing to
sacrifice Julian Assange for debt relief, that was reported by The New York
Times in early December."
The Courage Foundation summarized Assange's plight:
"Julian Assange is the only publisher and journalist in the EU formally
found to be arbitrarily detained by the UN human rights system. He is in
dire circumstances, faces imminent termination of his asylum, extradition
and life in a US prison for publishing the truth about US wars, and has been
gagged and isolated since 28 March 2018. He has been kept in the UK from his
young family in France for eight years (where he lived before being
arbitrarily detained in the UK), has not seen the sun for almost seven
years, and has been found by the United Nations to be subjected to "cruel,
inhuman and degrading treatment."
Julian Assange. (Wikimedia Commons)
Julian Assange. (Wikimedia Commons)
On Thursday Ecuador's foreign minister threatened additional "'firm and
sustained' measures against Assange after @WikiLeaks reports on the
@INAPapers offshore scandal involving the president and his brother,"
WikiLeaks tweeted.
Since Assange was cut off from the outside world, efforts by the United
States to prosecute Assange and WikiLeaks have been exposed. That Assange
had already been charged was inadvertently revealed by a cut-and-paste error
by the U.S. attorney's office of the Eastern District of Virginia. The
prosecution of the publisher pertains to WikiLeaks' Chelsea Manning-era
publications, and possibly Vault 7, not to the 2016 U.S. presidential
election.
Manning Back in Jail
Thursday also marks the passage of Manning's third week of imprisonment for
her refusal to testify before a grand jury convened to prosecute WikiLeaks
and Assange. Since being jailed, Manning's supporters have reported that she
has been kept in solitary confinement, where she will remain indefinitely
until either the grand jury is disbanded or she agrees to testify without
legal counsel and under a veil of secrecy.
Presumably, prosecutors hope to coerce Manning to backtrack on her testimony
during her court-martial in 2013, in which she testified she acted alone,
and instead indicate that Assange worked to incite or aid her in retrieving
leaked material. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges described
the situation as "the new inquisition."
The end of the collusion conspiracy theory came as a victory for Assange and
WikiLeaks. Special Counsel Robert Mueller made it clear there would be no
indictments against either for their roles during the 2016 election.
However, the damage has been significant, with Assange unable to comment and
WikiLeaks saddled with residual, unresolved smears. Over the last three
years, cable news pundits endlessly vilified WikiLeaks and Assange by
claiming the publisher coordinated with the Trump presidential campaign and
became an instrument of the Kremlin in 2016.
Meanwhile, The Guardian has allowed its outlandish story alleging that
secret meetings took place between Assange and Paul Manafort in Ecuador's
London embassy three times between 2013 and 2016 to go un-retracted and
unexplained. WikiLeaks has called the story "an intentional front page
fabrication," and launched a Gofundme campaign to raise funds to sue the
newspaper. Hrafnsson confirmed the lawsuit is progressing.
On March 28 last year, friends and supporters of Assange spontaneously came
together on hearing the news that he had been cut off from the outside world
by the Ecuadorian government. For more than 10 hours, participants and
viewers from across the planet raised their voices to protest the injustice
of Assange having been gagged.
The initial "Reconnect Julian" event led to subsequent "Unity4J" vigils.
Over the past 12 months, demonstrations of support have unfolded across the
globe, including many events organized by the Socialist Equality Party and a
plethora of unaffiliated actions in solidarity with Assange.
The WikiLeak's founder's mother, Christine Assange, wrote via social media:
"At critical times throughout history, leaders have emerged to lead the
fight for freedom. They risk their lives and liberty to do so. Most of us
don't have their courage, but we can unite to protect them.#FreeAssange
#FreeManning"
Earlier Thursday, trucks emblazoned with supportive messages for Assange and
Manning appeared in London and Washington, D.C.
Elizabeth Vos is a freelance journalist.
